QUEBEC: Former Canadian Parliamentarian and Liberal cabinet minister Jean Lapierre along with his wife and other family members died in a plane crash Tuesday off the coast of eastern Quebec.
According to a law enforcement official, the minister and his family headed to eastern Quebec to attend his father’s funeral when the plane went down in fog and freezing rain on the Îles-de-la-Madeleine in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
“The plane crashed as it approached an airfield near Havre-aux-Maisons around 11:40 a.m. AT. It went down a few kilometres from the airport,” said the official.
American-registered 1982 Mitsubishi MU-2B-60 with the tail number N246W took off from St. Hubert Airport, located on Montreal’s South Shore, at 9:30 a.m. ET.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Twitter: “Shaken by the sudden death of the Hon. Jean Lapierre on the Îles-de-la-Madeleine. A great loss to the political world.”
Late Tuesday evening, the Quebec coroner’s office released the victims’ names:
Jean Lapierre.
Nicole Beaulieu, Lapierre’s wife.
Martine Lapierre.
Marc Lapierre.
Louis Lapierre.
Pascal Gosselin, crew member.
Fabrice Labourel, crew member.
Lapierre originally served in the House of Commons as a Liberal Parliament member from 1979 to 1993.
